


The Crossroads in the Mirror

by Hagar



Series: Project: Aftermath [4]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Character Study, Coming of Age, Female Protagonist, Female-Centric, Gen, POV Female Character, Proper Short Story, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-07
Updated: 2004-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-02 16:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One girl, two lives: the night of her coming of age as a shaman, Aisha realized that there's more to herself than she remembered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Crossroads in the Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> Loving gratitude to beta reader Roie.

Stars; so many of them; Aisha couldn’t understand why it all suddenly seemed so alien. She grew up here, by the riverside, watching the myriad of twinkling stars in the sky above. She loved the riverbank; she’s been coming here since she could remember herself - to watch the animals, to wash, to watch the stars and to think, when she needed to be alone. Tonight, though, everything seemed strange: she could still find her way among the trees, but the sense of familiarity was gone.

_Jamais-vu_.

Where have the strange words come from? Aisha didn’t recall every hearing those words, but she knew that they meant the sudden estrangement of something familiar. She shivered_. Is this the Sight?_ She wondered. _But I haven’t chewed the leaves; I shouldn’t have the Sight yet!_

Feet padded softly behind her back, and Ashala set by her adopted grandchild.

“Thinking, Aisha?”

“Something is wrong, grandmamma”, said Aisha.

“Why do you think that anything is not as it ought to be?”

“Because I have a feeling as if I’ve never seen any of this before”

“What makes you think that you have?”

“I grew up here! I’ve been coming to this spot on the bank since I was old enough to walk! You and I spent here countless hours, you teaching me how to recognize all the animals and the plants…” Aisha’s voice died quietly. “I know it happened, but the memories are slipping when I try to recall them. What’s happening to me, grandmamma?”

“You’re growing”, said Ashalla, somewhat cryptically; it was not yet time, she decided, to reveal everything to Aisha. The child would have to find something out for herself.

“Is this the Sight?”

“Not quite”

“I don’t understand, grandmamma. If you know what’s happening to me, why aren’t you explaining?”

“Because this is something you’ll have to understand yourself”. The old woman looked up to the sky, checking the moon’s position. “It’s almost time. Do you want to go through the ceremony?”

“I don’t know”. Aisha voice grew weary, as if she’s given the same question the very same answer many times; which she did. “I don’t understand. Since I was young, you always made sure I’d be taught both the Old Ways and the New Way, even that you told everyone in the village that they don’t mix. Whenever I asked, you told me that a day would come when I’ll have to choose, but that the day hasn’t arrived yet.

“I was sure now is that time: on the one hand, I was given this study scholarship, I chance to go and learn outside, and on the other, it’s time for me to go through with the ceremony if I’m to be you successor. And you _still_ tell me it’s not time to choose. I don’t understand!”

Ashalla took her time before answering. “It is your time to choose”, she said finally. “But I have reason to believe that you, unlike others, can walk both the Old and New Ways”

“How?”

“I can tell you, or you can see for yourself. If I’ll tell you, I don’t think you’d ever fully understand. If you want to see for yourself…” Ashalla let the sentence dangle.

Aisha nodded. “Than I must perform the ceremony”

“Yes”

Aisha pushed herself to her feet. “Than let’s go”

* * *

Aisha tried hard not to swallow. She and Ashalla were sitting by the fire, the entire village seated around them. Many came of age tonight: the singing, dancing and acting went on for hours. Now, though, it was time for the final part of the ceremony. Ashalla, shaman of the village, would attempt foresight for the new adults of the community, and Aisha, her longtime apprentice, would attempt foresight for the first time.

She was acutely aware of everyone’s eyes as she and Ashalla set alone in the middle on the circle. She reminded herself to appear calm, calm, to ooze tranquility. The villagers were her judges, too.

She and Ashalla remained silent as they prepared the mixture of herbs they would soon use. Aisha help Ashalla prepare the mixture many times but tonight, with the alienation of the _Jamais-vu_ and the watching eyes, it was hard to keep her hand from trembling.

_Alienation_. The word sparked something in her, like a shadow of a memory.

They were done.

Ashalla raised the bowl first. She took a sip and then a full gulp. She handed the bowl to Aisha, who drank the rest. She put down the bowl. Already her head was heavy, spinning. Images swam before her eyes: she was twelve, assisting her grandmother in the ceremony for the first time; she was twelve, telling the strange old woman that what she called her personal talisman was really what she, Aisha, came from the future to find. She agreed to stay…

“I agree”, she told a huge head, floating in an even-larger tube…

“I agree”, she told Ashalla when she asked her to become her apprentice…

The village vanished.

She was standing in a circular room, in which everything was made of metal; everything, except for the large tube with the head.

This was not how she expected the Spirit World to look like!

“This is not the Spirit World”, said the head in the tube, “Nor am I a spirit. We are inside your mind, and the scenery is taken from your memories, and mine”

“But I’ve never seen this place” said Aisha, confused, and then her good manners kicked in. She bowed her head, palms pressed together. The head in the tube may not be a spirit, but she could tell he was powerful. “I am Aisha, oh great one, granddaughter and apprentice to Ashala, of the great plains”

“I know who you are, Aisha”, said the head gently. “You need not bow to me. I am Zordon, of Eltar, mentor to the Power Rangers”

“What are the Power Rangers, if I may… Oi!” she raised her hand to her temple as a headache attacked her suddenly, and strange images she did not understand.

“Who, not what”, said Zordon. “In a different life, you were one, too”

She massaged her temples, but did not screw her face at the pain. Things were beginning to make sense. “A different life that tonight I began to remember”, she guessed.

“True”, agreed Zordon. “Because tonight, in that other life, was the night in which you chose to remain in what was – for you – the past, and thus change time”

Aisha opened her mouth to ask – and closed it. She would figure this one out for herself. Lucky for her, Ashalla insisted that she learn modern physics as much as she insisted on Aisha learning of the realm of the Spirits, and now Aisha put all her knowledge into use.

“You mean that I had a different life”, she said, “One in which I knew you and was a _Power Ranger_, and I somehow changed that life – for a reason?”

“Yes”

She frowned. “You remember me, making that choice; grandmother Ashalla knows of this too; but I didn’t remember. Why?”

“Because you as you know yourself right now, was not the one who made the choice. To remember, you must be both Aisha, shaman of the great plains and Aisha, yellow Power Ranger of Earth”

Aisha managed not to gulp. Her grandmother warned her that one’s first excursion into the Spirit World usually contained a challenge or a test, but this was beyond and unlike anything she ever expected. Still, there was only one thing she could do. She straightened her back, and asked: “Can you tell me how to do it?”

“It is your mind we are inside of, Aisha. Here, you are the one who make the rules”

_So I need to find the solution for myself_, she thought. She nodded to Zordon and then, hesitantly, closed her eyes and concentrated as her grandmother taught her. She considered praying to the Spirits, but if she were inside her mind than they would not be able to help. Therefore, she sent her thoughts inside and down, searching… And an image came to her: a yellow crystal. She could see it both in her grandmother’s hands, and in her own, and here at the metallic room. She made a mental grasp for the crystal, and felt something change. She opened her eyes – and took a step back.

She was looking at her twelve-years-old self, dressed in white people’s clothing, yet the 16-years-old Aisha knew that this was herself from the night she became the shaman’s apprentice

“I was waiting for you to remember me again”, said twelve-years-old Aisha. “You remembered then, but only for one night. Then you forgot”

Aisha got her knees, so that she would be eye-level with the child. “I am sorry for forgetting you”, she said.

“Don’t be”, said the child. “You had to forget. The timelines cross at only two points, that night and today, and you couldn’t remember me in between or the timeline would’ve gone to hell in a hand basket”

Aisha blinked at the familiarity of the alien expression.

“Here” the child put her hand forward, holding the yellow crystal.

Aisha reached out for the crystal – and stopped. “I’m not supposed to hold it”, she said. She looked straight into the child’s eyes, and asked: “Together?”

The child nodded. “Together”. Turning her palm, she let the crystal drop…

…Both Aishas caught it together, and cried out as memories rushed forward and, rather than merging, arranged themselves side-to-side, two memories for each moment of one woman’s life.

When Aisha’s vision cleared again, she found herself of her knees, panting. To her right was the Command Center, with Zordon and his tube, and to her left – the riverside, and her grandmother, waiting.

“So you are Zordon”, said Ashalla. “I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long while, now”

“As I desired to meet you”, said Zordon. “It is an honour to finally make your acquaintance”

Carefully, Aisha pushed herself to her feet.

“Well, Aisha?” asked Ashalla. “Do you understand now, why I pushed you to learn both Old Ways and New?”

For a long moment, Aisha hesitated, and then smiled. “Yes, I do”, she said. “Thank you – for everything”. She looked to Zordon. “And thank you, too”

“You’re welcome, child”, said Zordon.

Her grandmother smiled and nodded. “Finally you are yourself, Aisha”, she said, “As you truly are: a woman of both worlds, blessed with the best of them both”


End file.
